Louis Vuitton Designs Carbon Fiber Luggage for the Revolutionary BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid.

Buy a BMW i8 and you not only get a sleek, sexy, plug-in hybrid with gullwing doors, but also a trunk full of luxurious luggage. Louis Vuitton has teamed up with the automaker to create a tailor-made set of luggage for the new revolutionary vehicle.


above: The revolutionary BMW i8 plug-in hybrid features gullwing doors

The innovative collection of luggage comprises two travel bags, a business case and a garment bag. To ensure optimal use of space, the luggage items have been tailor-made to fit perfectly into the interior of the revolutionary BMW i8.



“BMW and Louis Vuitton share both a profound appreciation of tradition and a commitment to constant further development,” says Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design. “The use of CFRP in the revolutionary BMW i8 sports car is indicative of an intelligent lightweight construction philosophy. And Louis Vuitton has demonstrated a similar belief in innovation, aesthetics and lightweight design in creating an exclusive luggage collection tailored perfectly to the new BMW i8.”



The understated carbon-black of this luggage range matches the colours of the BMW i8. Its sophisticated look comes courtesy of the unmistakable checkered Damier pattern – a Louis Vuitton hallmark – and a laser-etched Louis Vuitton signature. Black and electric blue used in the microfibre lining take their cue from the trademark brand colours of the BMW i8 and bag handles are made from dyed natural leather, a sign of Louis Vuitton quality. All items in the collection come with leather name tags and the iconic Louis Vuitton padlock with the exception of the garment bag.




Patrick-Louis Vuitton, Head of Special Orders at Louis Vuitton and great grandson of the House’s founder, says, “This collaboration with BMW epitomises our shared values of creativity, technological innovation and style. Our craftsmen at Louis Vuitton have enjoyed the challenge of this very special project, using their ingenuity and attention to detail to create a truly made to measure set of luxury luggage. This is a pure expression of the art of travel.”




Inspired by the visionary design of the BMW i8, the bags and cases – like the sports car’s innovative passenger cell – are made entirely from carbon fibre. This particularly lightweight yet extremely sturdy high-tech material has been used by Louis Vuitton to create a special textile. It provides great robustness and strength, and as such is made for the rigours of travel – no matter how long and arduous the drive.



The exclusive luggage pieces created by Louis Vuitton fit snugly into the BMW i8. The Weekender GM i8, with both hand and shoulder carry straps, is custom-designed to go into the boot (trunk), while the Garment Bag i8is a perfect fit for the rear shelf of the BMW i8. The sturdy hardshell Business Case i8 which is also ideal for carrying laptops, matches the shape of the rear seats; while the small Weekender PM i8 is designed to rest on its surface.



The Louis Vuitton luggage series will be available upon request in a selection of Louis Vuitton stores worldwide (Munich, Milan, London, Paris, Moscow, Dubai, New York, Los Angeles) starting April 1st 2014.

About the BMW i8:





The BMW i8 is the most progressive sports car and is the BMW Group’s first plug-in hybrid vehicle and the second model from the BMW i brand. It is a 2+2-seater boasting visionary design and intelligent lightweight engineering. As a plug-in hybrid, the BMW i8 unites the advantages of innovative electric drive and the latest combustion-engine technology. The upshot is an extraordinary driving experience that delivers the dynamics of a sports car (0 – 100 km/h / 62 mph in 4.4 seconds) along with fuel economy and emissions figures of a small city car (2,1 l/100km / 49 g CO2/km). This means not just purely electric emission-free driving around town but also sporty performance on inter-urban routes. The athletic personality of this revolutionary sports car is patently manifest in its design: classical sports car proportions, spectacular gullwing doors, clean, minimalist lines and a low-slung silhouette all imbue it with its powerful, dynamic shape. The sporty character of the BMW i8 exterior makes a seamless transition into the interior’s future-focused design.

all information and images courtesy of the BMW press group

Jeff Koons Designs the 17th Art BMW (And A Really Good Look At The Other 16).

above: Jeff Koons' concept art for the car

The New York Times announced yesterday that the next BMW art car, a long standing tradition, will be done by contemporary artist Jeff Koons.
View Koon's finished BMW Art Car here.



Koon’s relationship with BMW started more than two decades ago when he first drove a BMW whilst living in Munich, home to the BMW Group headquarters. It was in 2003 that Koons first expressed his desire to create a BMW Art Car.

Frank-Peter Arndt, member of the Board of Management for the BMW AG and responsible for BMW Group’s international cultural formats, said: “We are enormously pleased about Jeff Koons’ eagerly anticipated contribution to the BMW Art Car series, celebrating its 35th anniversary. Art Cars are part of the DNA of BMW’s cultural engagement. As manifested in Koons’ latest sculptural work, what unites us is the belief that nothing is impossible. Our company and Jeff Koons are drawn to permanent innovation and cutting-edge technology.”


above: Jeff Koons (right)with celebrated architect Richard Meier (left) at the party celebrating the announcement that Jeff Koons will create the 17th BMW Art Car at Koons‘ Manhattan studio, Tuesday, February 2, 2010.

It's fairly well known that BMW has commissioned 16 Art Cars over the last four decades. The cars have toured museums around the world, including the Louvre in Paris, the Royal Academy in London, the Whitney Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and at the Guggenheim museums in New York and Bilbao.



Four of them, by the artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella and Robert Rauschenberg, appeared at Grand Central Terminal in New York for two weeks in March of 2009. Those pieces (shown below) are part of a collection of 16 cars, from a 635CSi to an M1, that BMW has turned over to artists to re-imagine since 1975.



Andy Warhol, BMW M1 Group 4 Race Version, 1979:



 

Roy Lichtenstein, BMW 320i Group 5 Race Version, 1977:





Frank Stella, BMW 3.0 CSL, 1976:






Robert Rauschenberg, BMW 635 CSi, 1986:





Here are the other 12.

Alexander Calder, 3.0CSL, 1975. One of Calder’s last works, his BMW Art Car competed in the 1975 24 Hours of Le Mans:




Ernest Fuchs, 635CSi, 1982. He said his piece “represents a hare racing across a motorway at night and leaping over a burning car.”:




Ken Done, M3 Group A racing model, 1989. Along with Michael Jagamara Nelson, Mr. Done was one of two Australian artists commissioned by BMW in 1989. He painted parrots and parrot fish on his car:




Michael Jagamara Nelson, M3 Group A racing model, 1989. Using a style derived from traditional Aboriginal painting, Mr. Nelson’s work portrays a landscape as seen from the sky:




Matazo Kayama, 535i, 1990. Mr. Kayama used Japanese techniques of foil impression and metal cutting over an airbrushed surface:



Cesar Manrique, 730i, 1990. The Spanish artist and architect said he wanted his car “to appear as if it were gliding through space without encountering any form of resistance.”:




Esther Mahlangu, 525i, 1991. She painted her car in the traditional form of the Ndebele tribe of South Africa:




A. R. Penck, Z1, 1991. The German artist covered his car with pictographic images and symbols in a design that evokes primitive cave paintings:




Sandro Chia, M3 GTR, 1992. “Look at anything hard enough and it turns into a face,” said this Italian painter and sculptor of his Art Car. “And a face is a focal point of life and of the world.”:





David Hockney, 850CSi, 1995. His design offers an “inside” view of the car, including renderings of the intake manifolds painted on the hood:




Jenny Holzer, V12 LMR, 1999. Her Le Mans Roadster includes aphorisms like “The Unattainable Is Invariably Attractive.”:





Photographs © BMW AG

above Left: David Hockney painting Art Car 1995, BMW 850 CSi; above right: Jenny Holzer signing Art Car 1999, BMW V12 LMR

The final and 16th art car of the series thus far; Olafur Eliasson, H2R, 2007. He turned BMW’s hydrogen-powered race car into an Art Car on ice (this one has to be kept in a refrigerated room, for obvious reasons):

The Process - Installation view Studio Olafur Eliasson, Commissioned by BMW Group:






© Olafur Eliasson and BMW Group

special thanks to BMW, Dezeen and Car Body Design and The Curated Object for additional images. and to the Los Angeles Times and Robert Peele for additional info.

Miniature replicas of all of these cars (except for the Olafur Eliasson one) are available for purchase here.

See Jeff Koons finished version of the BMW Art Car here